Chapter Text
You searched your bag desperately for your keys as you walked up the stairs. Your bag was filled with so many stuff, you groaned in frustration when you could not find them. The lights turned off, making it impossible for you to find anything, you groaned louder and heard a click. Suddenly the lights brightened the corridor, as someone turned them on. You turned around and saw your neighbour, Thor Odinson.
“Thanks.” You smiled as you knelt in front of your door to search through your bag. “Ah! Found you!” You screamed holding your keys above your head in a triumphant scream. You heard Thor unlock his own door and chuckled when he saw your victory pose.
“Good night, Y/n.” Thor chuckled. You reciprocated and entered your flat.
You kicked your high heels and took off your trousers to put something more comfortable. You went to the kitchen and found the leftovers from the day before in your fridge. You sat cross-legged on the sofa when someone knocked on the door. You whined, put the plate on the small table in front of you and stood up to open the door. You looked through the peephole, it was Thor.
“Sorry to disturb you but I have your mail.” He said, waving a pile of letters.
“Again? Seriously, someone’s gonna have to talk to the postman.” You replied, leaning against the door frame. You took your mail from his hands. “I’ll go check if I have your mail.” You replied and he nodded before he returned to his flat. You turned around to put your slippers on and clacked the door behind you.
You went downstairs to take your mail but realised that you forgot the key so you rushed back upstairs and tried to open your door but of course, the keys were inside.
“I’m so stupid.” You whispered to yourself as you visualised the moment when you left your flat and clacked the door behind you. Inside your flat, the television was still on and you could hear the loud giggles coming from the show that you were watching. In that moment, you felt like they were mocking you. With a resigned sigh, you turned around and knocked on Thor’s door.
“Do you have it?” He asked but soon noticed that your hands were empty. “You locked yourself out, didn’t you?” He grinned and turned around to take his keys. You nodded, giving him a small pout as he used his keys to close his door.
You followed him downstairs to see the caretaker but a note on the door said that he was unavailable until ten. Thor offered to give you shelter until then and you accepted.
When you entered his flat, you were surprised to see how tasteful it was. Every items had its place and the soft light in the living room made it very cosy. You saw Thor quite often, you saw him in the hall, or greeted each other after a long day at work and sometimes you even met him in the laundromat or in the supermarket. He was by far your favourite neighbour. However you never really talked, just exchanged some thoughts on current events while you waited for your laundry. He closed the door behind you and went to the kitchen to gather plates and glasses for two. You followed him and helped him set the table.
“I can’t believe we live in the same apartment building. You’re flat is so much better than mine.”
“My ex did all the work.” He said as he put his fork down. You remembered a small brunette who used to leave his flat very early in the morning. You greeted her in the hall more than once but you had no idea that they were not together anymore. You felt a bit uncomfortable, you wondered if he wanted to talk about it.
“I’ve kept it that way, it’s nice.” He said looking around as he drank the content of his glass.
“Yeah, it is.” You smiled.
“Do you have someone?” He asked very casually. You pressed your lips into a thin line to avoid grinning.
“Nope.” You answered not feeling this conversation at all. He returned his attention to you and smiled softly.
“I’m sure you’ll find a nice bloke.” He said, resting his elbows on the table. You nodded pensively, this was a bit uncomfortable. Thor was a nice man, for sure, he was strong and looked good but he was just your neighbour. “Hey, I have a friend who’s coming to town tomorrow. Do you want to go out with us? I swear he’s nice.”
“Are you trying to set me up with your friend? I don’t know about that.”
“Just come and drink something. Drinks on me.” He raised his glass.
At ten, you went downstairs and after the caretaker helped you with his master key, you took Thor’s mail from your box and returned home.
The next day you returned home after your work and completely forgot about Thor’s invitation. You were actually quite happy to have a night on your own until he knocked on your door and reminded you of your night out.
“You forgot?” He asked amused when he saw you with your slippers and messed up hair.
“Completely.” You winced. “Give me ten minutes.”
You closed the door, grabbed the first dress that you found, and quickly fixed your hair. When you were done you made sure to take your keys and closed the door behind you. You went downstairs were Thor and his blond friend were waiting for you. You were suddenly very nervous but the man greeted you nicely. You followed Thor and Fandral to a bar where you listened to some stories about Thor when he was younger. After a while, you excused yourself to go to the restroom.
“So, anything new?”
“My mother called.” Thor started and Fandral snorted. “She wants to meet my girlfriend, even said I had to bring her with me for the holidays.”
“Why don’t you just tell her that you broke up?”
“Because she’d freak out. She wants me to marry a nice, respectable woman and I just don’t care. If I tell her that I broke up with Jane, she won’t stop nagging me.”
“Go with Y/n.”
“What?”
“Yeah, you pretend to be together. She plays the nice, respectable girl for a week and voilà… job’s done.”
“I can’t ask her that! I barely know her.”
“I would. She’s hot, you never know, you might even hook up with her.” Fandral nodded when he saw that you were coming back, ending the conversation with Thor.
You sat back on your seat and looked at the two men, you had a feeling that they were talking about something important.
“So what are you talking about?” You asked curiously. Thor looked at you like he was cut short, not knowing what to say. He replied the first thing that came to his mind.
“My brother.” He answered in panic.
“Oh yeah, the kid who used the pull the chair when you tried to sit down?” You asked and heard Fandral snort.
“Your brother was a real pain in the ass.” Fandral said after he sipped his drink. Thor nodded pensively. “He still is, to be honest.” He laughed as he finished his drink.
“He’s a bit… different.” Thor tried to take his brother’s side even if the man was not in the room.
“Well, from what I heard today, he sounds lovely.” You smirked and Fandral almost spilled his drink in Thor’s face.
“You need to bear with him. He can be lovely when he wants to.” Thor rolled his eyes as he glared at Fandral.
“Yeah, the problem is,” Fandral leaned closer to you and smiled. “he rarely wants to.” You didn’t know the man, but from what you understood, he was not the nicest person. You didn’t laugh though, Thor looked dead serious and you thought that he had enough.
When the night ended, you said your goodbyes to Fandral who flirted with you all night. He was nice but a bit pushy, you saw him coming from a mile away. You were walking with Thor back to your flat when he asked you something that you didn’t see coming at all.
“You want to take me on a holiday to meet your parents?” You recapitulated completely baffled.
“Just so you can pretend to be my girlfriend.”
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s crazy, why don’t you just tell your mother that you’re not seeing Jane anymore.”
“She’d freak out. My father would be thrilled, but my mother, she’d be on my back all week.” He stopped and held your shoulder which made you stop as well. “I know you work hard and the other day, in the laundromat, you told me you wanted to go on holidays. Here you have the opportunity to spend the following week in a very nice place, near the sea. You wouldn’t have to pay for anything, everything’s on me. The only thing I’m asking in return, is that you pretend to be my girlfriend.” He put his hands together in a silent prayer.
You crossed your arms, it was a tempting offer. A week off with nothing to pay for that would be the ideal holiday but on the other hand if anything went wrong, your perfect week would turn into a nightmare.
“I… really, I don’t know.”
“Just think about it, okay? I’m leaving in two days.”
You nodded and entered your apartment building. You left Thor in front of his flat and hurriedly entered yours.
The next day you came back to your flat, your heel in one hand as you limped with a broken shoe. That day you arrived at work late because you overslept, one of your co-worker ate your lunch so you had to go out to order something and pay what felt like a million pounds for a sandwich. During the meeting, you dropped your coffee on your white blouse and to finish in a great bang, you broke your heel when you ran after the train. You barely caught it in time but ten minutes later, an electric failure stuck you in a tunnel for more than an hour. The staff asked the people in the carriage to exit the train and follow them to leave the station safely. As a result, you had to limp all the way to your flat. You were almost home, practically crying with joy as the day finally ended when the strap of your bag broke and spread the content on the floor.
You dropped your broken bag in front of your door and tried to look for your keys but after a while you understood that you must have lost your keys somewhere across the streets. You sat on the floor, tired and miffed when Thor came back from his work.
“Hard day?” He asked when he saw you sitting on the floor.
“The hardest.” You mumbled.
He bent down to help you gather your things and miraculously found the silver key. You were so happy to find them that you almost burst into tears. You quickly opened the door and threw all the broken items on the floor of your flat. Thor was opening his door when you turned around, you bit your lower lip, thinking that you were about to take a really bad decision. You sighed and stopped him before he could close his door.
“I’ll come with you.” You said without warning. It took him a second or two to understand what you were talking about and then his face lit up with joy.
“You’re not messing with me, are you?”
“No, I think I really really need a week off. Especially after today.”
“That is… absolutely amazing! Thank you!” He took you in his arms and your feet left the ground. You hiccuped in surprised and smiled when he put you back on your feet.
“Yeah, well we have to talk about the rules. Just so we’re clear, I’m not going to kiss you and realised that you’re the man I’ve always been looking for.” You said, putting your hand to your forehead in a theatrical way.
“Obviously.” He laughed and nodded while you put your hands on your hips. “I’ll pay for everything, don’t worry about that. All you need to do is pretend that we’re in a relationship. My parents are pretty busy during the week so we’ll just see them during dinner.”
“Alright, I can do that. When are we leaving?”
“Tomorrow night. I can’t stress how much this means to me. Thank you, Y/n!”
“No problem.” You said, turning on your bare feet to go back to your flat.
The next day, you went to work and sighed happily when your boss agreed to let you take a week off. The day was much better than the previous one but anything would have been better than your previous day. You came home, packed your bag for your holidays, and made sure to take your most presentable outfits. At nine, Thor knocked on your door and you followed him to his car. You threw your bag on the back seat and tried not to focus on the awkward tension in the car.
“So I should probably tell you about my family.” Thor said his hands gripping the wheel and his eyes stayed focus on the road.
“Probably. What should I know?”
“Okay first of all, my mother’s name is Frigga. She’s really into saving the world, eating vegan and stuff like that. Odin, that’s my father’s name,” He turned his head for a second to see if you were still following. “He runs a business that exploits the energy of the sun to produce electricity. He’s doing very well, like very well. You’ll understand when you’ll see the house.”
You nodded but he was a bit fast and you wondered if you’d be able to remember everything.
“I should write that down.” You said and proceeded to grab a paper in your handbag but he stopped you.
“No, don’t! We have time, I’ll quiz you later.”
“Great.” You said sarcastically. Suddenly, this whole situation seemed like a giant mistake. Your holidays started to turn into the Big Fat Quiz of the Year. The only difference was that it involved knowing everything about strangers and being able to keep a straight face when Thor called you ‘honey’.
“Oh and my brother. I have to tell you about him. His name is Loki, I’m not sure you’ll see him much. He’s not really fond of people. But you’ll have to be careful, he’s very smart. He may see right through all our lies. It’s kind of his thing.”
“What? Pretending to be in a relationship with his neighbour?” You said with a smirk.
“No.” Thor rolled his eyes at your barb. “I meant lying. He’s good at it. Okay so what’s my mother’s name?”
“Gretta, she loves food and… gardening?” You tried to remember. Thor laughed at your poor memory and repeated until you remembered it.
After a while, he asked you again. “What’s my mother’s name?”
“Frigga, vegan, saving world.” You said, using only short words. “Father, Odin, business, electricity, money.” You continued, using only basic adjectives to describe the patriarch. “Brother, Loki, liar, asocial.”
“Well, asocial is a bit much. He’s more of a-”
“Hey, if I need to remember everything by tomorrow, he’s an asocial.” You said warning him with your pointer finger.
“Actually, I’m not even sure you’ll need that kind of information.”
“Good, I’ll erase that from my memory then.” You said, pretending to use an imaginary eraser. “Can I keep my name or did you tell your family about Jane?”
“No, you can keep your name. But you’re an astronomer, that’s the only thing I told them about Jane.
“You told them her job before her name? Wait, what… I don’t know anything about astronomy!” You took your phone out of your pocket and searched some information on the subject.
“Relax! They won’t ask you to do a lecture.” He chuckled. “You should take some rest. We’ll see about what you remember when you’ll wake up.
You tried to keep your sighs to yourself and sunk back into your seat as you tried to relax. You shifted in your seat, trying to shake the guilt and embarrassment of this situation. About an hour later, you finally fell asleep while Thor drank his coffee, his eyes still focused on the road.